Ray Malanaphy was a senior officer in the navy before he took up a position as coastal unit sector manager, for the west coast, in 2009.

He took a case to the Employment Appeals Tribunal claiming he was never paid for being on-call 24 hours a day and didn't get an allowance for shift work.

"I would never say no – and I think the management took that for granted," he told the tribunal. Dick Davis, who represented the department, told the tribunal that Mr Malanaphy was appointed to a newly created position to which previous agreements did not apply.

Chairwoman of the tribunal, Niamh O'Connell, said she had an issue with the department "calling different things (duties), even though they are exactly the same".